Medvedev's Winter Palace That Sochi Built

By Andrei Malgin

Published: January 28, 2014 (Issue # 1794)

To get an idea of just how free the Russian media is, consider the case of Medvedev's purported villa near Sochi.

In 2010, when Dmitry Medvedev was president, a scandal erupted over the illegal construction of a swanky residence on the territory of the Utrish nature reserve in the Krasnodar region. Rumors spread that it was "Medvedev's palace."

The presidential administration was quick to deny any ties to the project, issuing a statement to the media saying: "We have no connection to the construction in the Utrish nature reserve. A small private foundation is building something there on a small plot of land."

Why is the media so quiet about Medvedev's winter dacha, which is officially listed as a structure that was built for the Olympic Games?

Novaya Gazeta was the only newspaper to investigate the case. It published a front-page story on that construction project and included a document with the signature of the official in the presidential administration who had denied any involvement in the criminal project.

At that point, the public learned the name of the "private foundation" that had shown the temerity to encroach on a nature reserve: DAR.

Not long after, the DAR foundation once again surfaced in connection with Medvedev. He once paid a visit to the ancient Russian town of Plyos, a quaint little settlement of 2,340 residents in the Ivanovo region on the banks of Volga River. Medvedev reportedly fell in love with the place and began vacationing there.

A retrospective of the films of Roman Polanski starts today at Loft-Project Etagi, 74 Ligovsky Prospekt, with a screening of ‘Repulsion’ at 7 p.m. and ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ at 9:15 p.m. The series runs through Feb. 4 and will include Polanski's eminently creepy ‘The Tenant,’ the cult comedy ‘The Fearless Vampire Killers’ and ‘Cul-de-sac’ among others. Tickets are 150-200 rubles and the complete schedule is available at www.vk.com/artpokaz/